The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM; http://www.stfm.org) is a community of professionals devoted to teaching family medicine through undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. This multidisciplinary group of physicians, educators, behavioral scientists, and researchers works to further STFM's mission of improving the health of all people through education, research, patient care, and advocacy. STFM holds an annual conference each spring and a predoctoral education conference each winter. STFM held its 34th Predoctoral Education Conference in Portland, Oregon, from January 24 to 27, 2008. The theme was "Igniting Students' Passion for Serving the Underserved." Christine Stabler, MD, Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, opened the conference with a plenary presentation on the passion for patient care, medical education, and advocacy that have defined her own career and continue to inspire medical trainees. Kenneth Ginsburg, MD, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, continued the theme of igniting students' passion by exploring the ways in which socialization in medical education can teach students to suppress their feelings and humorously illustrated how accessing a full range of emotions can lead to satisfying lives and practices. Tanya Page, MD, a recent residency graduate practicing in a homeless clinic in Portland, Oregon, described her own passion for caring for the underserved. Participants shared ideas and learned new skills in more than 65 workshops, seminars, and discussions as well as 65 educational research and curriculum evaluation papers. The unifying theme was incorporating care of the underserved in medical education. From the educational research or curriculum evaluation papers presented at the conference, the STFM Education Committee selected 8 papers felt to be of interest to readers of Teaching and Learning in Medicine.